Session #050, Work #039

From last post I decided that I need to set a goal for each painting I do from now on. The goal for this painting was perfection in drawing. I knew it would take me a while just to get the drawing correct so I expect that this painting will take on several days of work. That is cool because the leaves that I picked up at Carcreek park are amazing.

I went to the part to scout out how busy it would be on a week day, and also decided to find some driftwood and items from the beach that would be interesting to paint and challenge my drawing. I would rather have a figure but, that is kinda hard to do. Anyway, I went to the park and picked up some drift wood, shells and rocks but then realized that pulling things from nature is not really a good idea for the environment. After checking the local signage my theory was confirmed, that I may have disturbed an animals home and quickly put the items back. But while leaving the park I was looking at all of the dried leaves everywhere and was struck of how beautiful and intricate they were. These are perfect! Infinite amount of detail plus, monochromatic. There is enough information in one leaf to keep any artist busy for weeks. I’m reminded by something Sargent said about challenging and artist to his/her highest ability with a single flower, I paraphrase but it is very true.

Basically with my new setup these leaves are on fire and really exciting. Giving me more than enough energy to work on this for several days. I started the drawing, and worked in 30 minute spans for 1.5 hours. I was super tired so I didn’t work too much longer than that. It was midnight when I finished anyway.

The Painting

The Setup

My hierarchy of painting importance

Drawing

Value

Edges

Composition

Color

Drawing

How can I improve the drawing

Some hard core focus on drawing here. I just about nailed it. I feel like the only way I could improve the accuracy here is to just work longer. The next possible improvement is to be able to get to this point faster, but that just takes practice, and is something I will not rush. One day I will be able to whip out a perfect drawing in minutes, but not this week… month… or year. I’m OK with that time frame, I want to do this right, if becoming a master artist only happened in a year everybody would be one.